Hot on the heels of AMD's launch, Hong Kong's Sapphire Technology has let the world and its dog know about the latest graphics cards series, running on AMD's Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture, the Sapphire HD 7800.

These are based on the third of AMD's 28nm process GPUs now featuring GCN. The HD 7870 and HD 7850 GPUs have, Sapphire says, plenty in common with the HD 7900, however, it has less Stream processors and a high speed 256-bit memory interface for DDR5.

With gamers squarely in mind, Sapphire has two models available to beign with. There is the Sapphire HD 7870, which has a core clock speed of 1GHz, shipping as the Sapphire HD 7870 GHz Edition. It sports 2GB of DDR5 memory clocked at 1200MHz or 4.8Gb/s.

Sapphire's other model will be higher performance and ship as the Sapphire HD 7870 GHz OC Edition, aimed at the enthusiast market. Both core and memory are factory overclocked, Sapphire says, while PowerTune lets tinkerers tweak the card even further.

Both of Sapphire's models ship with Dual-X, what it claims is a "highly efficient" multi heatpipe cooler, with dual fans keeping operations cool under heavy loads.

Two other models to ship will be the Sapphire HD 7850 and the Sapphire HD 7850 OC Edition, which ship with lower core clocks of 860MHz and 920MHz respectively, Sapphire says. They also ship with slightly slower Straem processors. The cards feature 2GB of DDR5 memory and one of Sapphire's Dual Fan coolers.

Sapphire boasts that its HD 7000 series is equipped to run on DirectX 11.1 and Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 OS.

Sapphire's first products of the series will become available 19 March.